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By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
The environmental impacts of our meat centered diet are devastating. To raise a pound of wheat takes about 25 gallons of water. To raise a pound of meat takes about 2,500 gallons of water. The groundwater of the central United States, source of most of our underground drinking water supplies, is being depleted at an alarming rate, just to raise cattle.
It takes 20 times as much land to raise cattle as it does to farm vegetables, fruits, and grains.
Cattle (Photo by Keith Weller courtesy USDA)
It takes huge amounts of fossil fuels to raise animals and to turn them into meat. Fortunately, most of the world does not eat a meat centered diet. If everybody did, all the world's known oil reserves would be used up in 13 years. If the world no longer ate meat, those same reserves would last another 260 years.
The economy of the United States is dramatically affected by meat consumption. This heavily subsidized industry must have taxpayer dollars in order to survive. If the water used by meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, hamburger meat would cost $35 pound. A pound of protein derived from wheat costs about $1.50.
Over 260 million acres of U.S. forests are cleared each year to create cropland to produce a meat centered diet.
Every 45 seconds in the United States, a diet related heart attack kills someone, and most of the time, that person is a meat eater. The risk of heart attack by the average American male is 50 percent. The risk from heart attack for a vegetarian male is 15 percent and the risk to a vegan male - one who eats no eggs, dairy, or other animal products - is only four percent.
Your risk of having a heart attack is decreased by 90 percent if you eliminate the consumption of meat, dairy products, and eggs from your diet.
Unfortunately, most doctors will be unable to discuss these issues with you. Out of the 125 medical schools in the United States, only 30 require their medical students to take a course in nutrition. In fact, the average U.S. doctor, during his or her four years of medical school, receives barely 2.5 hours of training in the effects of nutrition on the body.
But if you watch television regularly, you will receive hundreds of hours of propaganda about how great fast foods are for you during those same four years.
More and more, contaminated meat products are resulting in millions of illnesses each year and estimates are that 7,000 to 8,000 people in the U.S. alone die annually from eating contaminated meat. The slaughterhouses in the U.S. are hardly regulated at all, and the meat inspection system, managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a failure. Only about one chicken per 22,000 and one beef carcass out every 300 each week is tested for the deadly E. coli 015H7 bacteria. Visual inspections are the only line of defense.
Slaughterhouse (Photo credit unknown)
Recently, the USDA approved irradiation for meat. The filth gets to stay on the meat, but it is sterilized by radiation.
Evidence abounds that animals are often butchered alive in slaughterhouses. Recent video footage exists that shows fully conscious cows being skinned alive and having their legs cut off while struggling for freedom.
The Associated Press reported in a story covering Dave Thomas' death that although he was a multimillionaire, Thomas' favorite meal never changed: a Wendy's Single with cheese, mustard, pickles and onions; fries, a bowl of chili, a Frosty [milkshake] and a diet Coke.
Thousands of people die each year, many thousands more suffer debilitating illnesses, and the Earth's surface and her animals are ravaged due to meat consumption. Instead of accepting the pressure from a greedy industry representing itself as an American icon, take back your health and your diet from the advertisers.
You can have it your way by passing by those burger stands.
RESOURCES
1. Charities that Dave Thomas supported that his family has requested be given contributions in his honor can be found at:
http://www.wendys.com
2. A number of healing Our World commentaries have been written about the meat industry. Enter the word meat into the search engine at:
http://www.healingourworld.com.
3. Check out some of the information by those against eating meat at:
http://www.meatstinks.com
4. Keep track of these issues with the Organic Consumers Association at:
http://www.purefood.org
5. Read about protein from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine at:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/Info_on_
Veg_Diets/protein.html
6. Many people erroneously believe that Kosher slaughter is somehow better. See the Healing Our World commentary called 𡤄Vegetarians Beware ... on ENS at:
http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/may99/
1999L-05-23g.html and learn otherwise.
7. Explore reducing the meat in your diet with the help of EarthSave at:
http://www.earthsave.org
8. Learn about healthy eating from Dr. John McDougall at:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/index.html
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He has not eaten meat in 22 years and has had no animal products in his diet for 10 years. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at
jackie@healingourworld.com
and visit his website at: http://www.healingourworld.com
http://www.ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-11g.html
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